It's odd to think that I've had more teppanyaki in Hong Kong the past six months than I have had in my ten consecutive years of visiting Japan. I think we always prioritized sushi whenever we traveled to Tokyo, and thus never truly explored teppanyaki there, save for one magical experience.
Hong Kong has excellent Japanese food in general, and teppanyaki is no exception. Hong Kong restaurants are able to source a lot of premium ingredients from Japan, and yet they also have the flexibility to incorporate more western elements, due to the very international population that passes through this tiny island.
TeppanRoom Grand Hyatt Hong Kong is unique just for that reason. The menu is pretty Japanese, yet the restaurant incorporates some European influences into the dishes. It's fusion teppanyaki at its best.
The counter-style seating can only fit 16 guests at one time. The guests all sit around the Teppanyaki grill and can watch the chef in action. It's a fun experience for all different types of people.
I came during lunchtime with a friend. The set menus at lunch are a bit smaller (good for me) though they may not include the top quality ingredients. For example, the beef served during lunch was A3 Wagyu while the restaurant offers A5 at dinner.
My friend and I each ordered a different menu. He got the most expensive lunch set: Menu C (HKD588). I got the least expensive one, Menu A (HKD388). The biggest difference is the main course. Menu A gives a choice between prawns or fish, Menu B (HKD438) gives a choice between lamb or Iberico pork loin, and Menu C gives a choice between Saga Wagyu or Iwate wagyu beef rolls.
We began with salad. Menu C got the fancier organic vegetable salad with sea scallop in a vanilla citrus sauce. Menu A started with a spinach salad with button mushrooms, crispy pancetta, and sliced strawberries in a poppy seed dressing. Both salads were quite western in style and tasted pretty nice.
For the next course, Menu C got three kinds of sashimi while Menu A got three pieces of nigiri. The sushi was solid and likely came from their neighbor/sister sushi restaurant Kaetsu.
Menu C only: Steamed egg custard (chawanmushi) with shrimp and ginko.
The chef then began preparing the Patagonia toothfish fillet using a cooking method called en papillote. The term literally translates to "in parchment" in French and refers to cooking something inside wrapped in a folded parcel and cooked.
In this case, the chef cooked sustainable Patagonian toothfish first on the grill (to get some browning), before putting it inside a plastic bag and the cooking it over the teppan grill with seasonal vegetables.
It takes so much patience to get it just right.
This is most certainly fusion: applying French cooking techniques on Japanese ingredients using Japanese equipment. It tasted healthy and was quite enjoyable.
I must confess, though, I thought the sliced beef rolls using the Iwate wagyu sirloin A3 (80g) was so much tastier. It's worth the extra cost, in my opinion. My friend was kind enough to let me try one of the rolls, and I was hooked!
Each beef roll includes scallions and fried garlic chips inside.
I absolutely loved the combination of flavors and textures in the beef roll: juicy Wagyu beef, crunchy flavorful garlic chips, and crispy intense semi-raw scallions - truly a combination made in heaven.
To finish off, we enjoyed corn, egg fried rice, miso soup, and pickles.
Dessert was a simple bowl of seasonal fruit (in our case, persimmon) served with a simple cream sauce.
The TeppanRoom Grand Hyatt Hong Kong - General Thoughts
The standard for teppanyaki quality in Hong Kong is quite high. Every single one I've enjoyed has been quite good, and this is no exception. In some ways it's not a fair comparison because I had a cheaper lunch here whereas I enjoyed pretty premium dinner tasting menus at the other two places.
Despite that, I still enjoyed the teppanyaki meal a lot at The TeppanRoom. Honestly, HKD 388 (about $50 USD), is not that bad for a meal with so many courses (though I still recommend upgrading to the HKD 558 so you can enjoy the delicious beef rolls!). In general, lunch is a great value.
At dinnertime, set menus range from HKD 1180, HKD 1380, and HKD 1680. Of course, the ingredients are nicer (e.g., A5 Wagyu beef), although some of the same dishes at lunch also show up on the dinner menu (such as the fish).
All in all, the TeppanRoom is a good Japanese teppanyaki place that's a great deal at lunchtime.
The TeppanRoom Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
Mezzanine floor
The Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
1 Harbour Road
Wan Chai
This is the fiftieth (!!!) post in the updated #50Postsin50Days – Take 2 Challenge. Can't believe I am finally finished. Now please excuse me while I go and lay down and sleep for a few weeks. All posts in this series are at the bottom of the original post.
